Poetry Friday is Here Today!

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Leave your links in the comments and I will round them up. I have comment moderation enabled so don't panic if your comment doesn't show up immediately. I'm on East African Time, which is currently 8 hours ahead of the east coast of the US. 

 

I've been rereading J. Drew Lanham's book Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts. I really recommend it; it's about birds, yes, but also about being Black in the United States. You in the northern hemisphere are past the solstice now, and moving into longer days, but this still seems appropriate for January. I live on the equator, but still as I'm writing this, it's a dark and overcast day at the end of winter break. The poem works for me today.

 

 

 

Soulful Warming

by J. Drew Lanham

 

cold creeps in

a gray chill settles

darkness fills

where sunlight falls

cardinal chants

in tangled bramble

towhee kick-scatters leaves

and care

take heart

grasp hope

feathers lighten

solstice's darkening burden

brightening briefest day

 

 

Tracey is in with her OLW for 2026, plus a Jorie Graham poem.

 

Good morning! I'm waking up to an inbox full of comments! Just published them all and now I'll round up for a while.

 

Jane hopes (rather than resolves) to share poetry all year. Looking forward to it, Jane!

 

Matt has posted about his 2023 book, The Thing to Remember about Stargazing, which has just won an award. He shares with us how this book came to be. Sometimes it's a circuitous journey! 

 

Jone is sharing her OLW for the new year! (Yes, Jone, I can read your comment, but sadly I once again can't access the post itself from my network. Wish we knew why!)

 

Robyn has written a sad, beautiful poem about Renee Nicole Good.

 

Michelle is thinking about Renee Nicole Good as well, and has written a haiku and a zeno.

 

Marcie has a photo and a haiku, and also shares her OLW for this new year. 

 

Jan is also sharing a poem about Renee Nicole Good; this tragic death on Wednesday of a young mom and fellow poet has touched many of us!

 

Tabatha is thinking of this same topic, and shares two poems, one about Eric Garner, and one about how we can respond in these times.

 

Karen is also grieving this loss, and has a Mary Oliver poem for us.

 

Carmela's post isn't live yet, it appears, so I'll come back later and link it. (That link is to the main blog, Teaching Authors.) She's written about a poetry workshop and a Chris Harris poem. 

 

Linda has made the switch to Substack! Congratulations, Linda! As always, she's picked a creative OLW and she shares a poem with us on her new theme. 

 

Rose is thinking about stargazing, teaching, and waiting. Beautiful, Rose! 

 

Linda's in with watching stars and grieving Renée Nicole Macklin Good. (Two of today's emerging themes together!) 

SJT: OLW

Happy New Year! This is our first SJT (Spiritual Journey Thursday) for 2026, and today our host Margaret has asked us to share our OLW (One Little Word) for the year. Sorry to be boring, but I'm sticking to the same OLW for the fourth year in a row. The word, FEATHER, is serving me well and I still love it. 

 

Feathers, as I reflected here, here, and here, are light and beautiful, yet tough and multipurpose. If you find a feather on the ground, it means a bird has lost it, but as long as that bird is still alive, the feather will grow back. In fact, most birds do at least a partial molt once a year (and some twice). That's why birds look different depending on the time of the year and the time of life. So feathers are a symbol of change and resilience. I'm blessed to live in a country with gorgeous, bright tropical plumages, and I have collected feathers of all different shades, some shining with iridescence. 

 

I gave serious thought to changing my word to ANALOG this year, since I have been watching with increasing horror the way AI has been taking over people's experience of the world and creativity. Then I realized that birding is my ultimate analog activity, going outside, watching, listening, being present and enjoying what is around me in real time. What God created and gave us. 

 

I love this poem by Joyce Clement (I found it here). The birds that punctuate my days are different from hers, but birds do punctuate my days, too.

 

 

Birds Punctuate the Days

by Joyce Clement

apostrophe
the nuthatch inserts itself
between feeder and pole
 

semicolon
two mallards drifting
one dunks for a snail
 

ellipses
a mourning dove
lifts off
 

asterisk
a red-eyed vireo catches
the crane fly midair
 

comma
a down feather
bobs between waves
 

exclamation point
wren on the railing
takes notice
 

colon
mergansers paddle toward
morning trout swirl
 

em dash
at dusk a wild goose
heading east
 

question mark
the length of silence
after a loon’s call
 

period
one blue egg all summer long
now gone

 

Reading Update

So I'm going back to work today. We had visitors over our Christmas break and stayed quite occupied. Nevertheless, here is what I've managed to read so far this year.

 

Book #1 of 2026 was The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans. I noticed this turned up a lot on people's favorites lists for last year, and sure enough, it was a good one. I enjoyed it immensely. 

 

Book #2 was Jodi Picoult's 2007 novel Nineteen Minutes. It was painful watching the teachers in the novel ignore bullying every chance they got. Let's hope we're doing a little better in 2026.

 

Book #3 was Among Friends, by Hal Ebbott. Again I'll use the word painful, as this story looks at family dynamics, friendships, and what we're willing to tolerate from those we love.

 

Book #4 was Some Bright Nowhere, by Ann Packer, a heartbreaking novel about death.